One of our favorite acts, Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr, is coming back to play the Fillmore next Wednesday with Minature Tigers and Madi Diaz, it will be the best show you’ll ever see. It will literally melt your face off like when they opened the Ark in Indiana Jones. Well, maybe that is a bit over the top, but it will be a very fucking good show, and if you are free October 22nd you should definitely go.

We caught DEJJ last they hit the Fillmore and it was a fantastic night filled with great music, bubbles and dancing. They are a group that shrugs off labels and genres, giving you harmonies like The Beach Boys mixed with beats that sound like they were created with long-forgotten settings on an 80s Casio keyboard. We also saw them at First City Festival this year where Josh Epstein, (who sings and plays a little bit of everything including sax for the Detroit-based act), decided to spend some time singing with the crowd.

Listen to them dim the lights and slow it down a bit with the new single “James Dean:”
We interviewed Josh back in February. A few highlights:

SFCritic (SFC): Did getting mentioned during the Daytona 500 get you any new fans? But seriously, how often are you asked about the name? I read that you picked it to make sure people didn’t know what to expect when they first heard you; what other names did you consider?

Josh Epstein (JE): We never really considered another name. It all happened so quickly. We wanted a name that we felt wouldn’t pigeon hole us and it came up and was over in 15 minutes.

SFC: What artists are you listening to right now? Who would you most like to collaborate with?

JE: I’ve been listening to the latest Danny Brown record and the new Schoolboy Q record lately. Also, a ton of old soul music from the Midwest that has been digitally archived recently. I really would love to work with Beck. Today’s music landscape is sort of confusing because by the time an artist like Lorde goes to make her second record, there are five artists releasing records that sound like her first. It’s hard to have a “sound”…and yet Beck has one and still does. He is incredible.

SFC: I saw Taco Bell decided to use your music for its “Beefy Nacho Burrito.” That must have been an pretty surreal milestone. What was it like when you found out they were using your music? Follow up, what city has the best burritos in your experience?

JE: Honestly, I had moved into a new place and hadn’t been able to furnish it yet, so that commercial literally made me think, “I can probably get a couch.” San Francisco obviously has the best burritos. The Mission is where it’s at. I learned the hard way to eat them after the show though. They’re like four pounds of food.